- Sufferings of recharge, complexity of meter lock
- Electricity office can’t solve problems
'It is a technical matter. We are working to bring all the meters online.’
Rafiqul Islam, System Operations Director (Technical), REB
In the case of prepaid electricity meter recharge, a token number of 20 digits are usually sent to the customer's mobile phone. Entering that token number into the meter completes the recharge. If there is any kind of mistake, then the recharge will not be successful. The meter will be locked after multiple mistakes. However, the 20-digit number is a bit easier, but it is currently in trouble. That 20-digit number is now 10-12 times more than normal; 200 to 220 digits are coming. Customers are suffering from this. On the one hand, it is a pain to enter long digits in the meter; on the other hand, the meter gets locked due to mistakes.
Rahaman sobhan, a resident of the Rampura area, said that my electricity meter is under the stairs of the house. It is not possible to sit there, and it is not possible to stand there either. It is very difficult to enter 240 digits accurately in a meter while standing in such a place. Three more mistakes will lock the meter. The country has become digital, now our goal is to build a smart Bangladesh. Everything in a digital country will be easy, hassle-free. But the opposite is happening. Such suffering from electricity prepaid meter recharge seems like digital suffering to me.
In this regard, the Acting Managing Director of Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (DESCO) Khandkar Zahirul Islam could not be reached despite several attempts to contact him on his mobile phone.
Shahzahan Torofdar, a resident of the Narinda area and customer of DPDC, said that whenever I went to punch the meter, the meter was locked. Life almost ends when you call the office. I had to go to the office again for this and brought people from the office. But it was not resolved for long. Why should I buy suffering with money? Some customers have expressed their anger on social media about the irony of prepaid meters.
On the condition of anonymity, a top official of the ICT department of DPDC said that since the prepaid meter recharge software of DPDC is not updated, customers have to recharge manually. As a result, customers have to fall into this irony (220 numbers have to be pressed for card recharge). In this regard, DPDC Managing Director (MD) Engineer Abdullah Noman said, this problem is arising while adjusting the new price of electricity. But it will be fixed in a few days.
However, information technologists have claimed that customers have suffered due to the eccentricity of electricity distribution companies. According to them, the options are many; all that is needed is the will to make the best use of technology. Salahuddin Salim, Information technology expert said, there are many modern technologies. If the meter can be brought to the NFC or RFID system, then if the given paper is held near the meter, it will be automatically scanned and entered into the meter automatically. This manual entry is not suitable in this era.
Several residents of East Goran 8 road under the Basabo division of DPDC said, we did not ask for a prepaid meter from the government. The government has forced us to install prepaid meters at home. Now to recharge the prepaid meter one has to dial 220 numbers. There is a risk of making a mistake and it is complexity.
Md Rafiqul Islam, Director (Technical) of Operations Department of Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board's System said, that whenever the price of electricity changes, a 220-digit token comes out when the meter is inputted. After the first recharge at the new price, this issue no longer occurs until the next price change. The official acknowledged the suffering of the customer while recharging at the long line digit meter. He said it is a technical issue. Gradually we are working to bring all the meters online, once the meters are online customers will not have to face this problem anymore.
He said that currently 1.3 million prepaid meters are being used among the 3.41 million rural electricity customers across the country. 98 percent of these are residential customers. There has already been a lot of discussion and criticism on social media about the suffering of customers.
Md Abul Kalam Azad, General Manager of Dhaka Palli Bidyut Samity-3 said that whenever the electricity tariff (price) changes, this problem arises. However, we have already published the method of how customers can recharge the meter by pressing these 220 digits on our website and social media. This may cause temporary inconvenience to the customers but gradually the customers will get used to it.
ZH
